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Embodiments of this invention relate to the field of metal cooling techniques, and more specifically, to a method of installing cooling tubes into a metal component to remove heat from the metal component.
Metal components are used in various industrial applications. In volatile applications, such as plasma chamber cleaning where the chamber is composed of a metal component, the metal component is subjected to highly reactive gases colliding against it, resulting in the metal component becoming very hot. In order to keep the chamber cool, heat must be removed from the metal component.
One method of cooling the metal is to directly apply water to the metal component. However, water causes the performance of the metals to change. For instance, water directly applied to aluminum can cause the aluminum to degrade by galvanic corrosion.
Another method of cooling the metal is to insert a non-corrosive cooling tube into the metal, and run water through the cooling tube, allowing the heat from the metal to transfer to the cooling tube. For example, where aluminum is used as the metal component, copper is commonly used for the cooling tube since it is a more noble metal and is less likely to degrade by galvanic corrosion. Also, copper has a high thermal conductivity compared to other tube metals resulting in less thermal resistance from the metal component to the water.
One way of inserting the cooling tube into the metal is to use a metal component that has an undercut joint. In this method, a filler material is put into the joint of the metal component to remove air pockets in and around a colling tube that is placed therein. Once the filler material is put into the joint, the cooling tube is pressed in, fitting the contour of the undercut joint.
In one aspect of the invention is a method for placing a cooling tube in a metal component into cool the metal component. The method comprises inserting the cooling tube into a groove of the metal component that has a first surface and a second surface, and that has at least one ridge that extends in a positive, vertical direction from a corresponding surface. The groove has an inner surface, and extends from the first and second surfaces into the metal component, and the cooling tube has an outer surface, and an outer diameter that is approximately equal to the width of the groove at the surfaces. Furthermore, the outer surface of the cooling tube is adjacent to the inner surface of the groove. The cooling tube is then swaged into the groove of the metal component by applying pressure to the at least one ridge until the at least one ridge and cooling tube are flush with the first and second surfaces.